They’re just not that into you

A while ago, we enjoyed deleting hundreds of subscribers from a charity’s email list.

What?!

Yes, we enjoyed it and we’re not ashamed to say so. There were about 1,600 contacts on this list who hadn’t even opened, let alone engaged with, any email sent to them in the past 6 months. 

So we ran an email re-engagement process with them, offering them some other options. “This obviously isn’t working for you”, we said. “Would you like to hear from us another way?”

Around 200 people did open and interact with this email – the first one they had in a long, long time! – to let the charity know they did want to stay in touch in a different way. That was a win.

But the other 1,400 maintained a stony silence. We deleted them. That was a win as well.

Why?

• Inactive subscribers bring down your email open rates.

• This affects your reputation as an email sender and – as a knock-on effect – your email deliverability.

• Then the subscribers who actually are interested in hearing from you won’t, because your email has gone into their junk folder.

• Many of these unresponsive email addresses were ‘historical’ – they got onto the list a long time ago, before the days of GDPR. We can speculate that they were either never very interested in the charity’s cause, stopped being interested a long time ago, or don’t use that email address anymore.

You might like the look of a big number, but lean, keen email lists are far more effective and useful. If they’re just not that into you – let them go!

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